On Monday, June 12, 2023, TCNJ’s Department of Computer Science (CS) hosted 14 students and 3 teachers from a nearby school district, Hamilton Township School District (HTSD), to stimulate interest in computing research and careers in the field of artificial intelligence. CS faculty member Dr. Sejong Yoon led the event, titled “Summer Workshop on AI: Special Topic on Humans, Crowd, Environment, and Robotics.”
There were several activities for students to participate in, such as touring the CS Department research lab, taking parts in virtual reality-based experiments, and coding in Python to control robots. The program also seeks to include underrepresented minorities in computer science.
At the workshop, three TCNJ CS majors assisted Dr. Yoon in organization and showcased a robotics project to visitors. The student team (Eden Espinosa, Kristen O’Donnell, and Mila Manzano) spent seven weeks of summer to continue working on related projects, while receiving stipend and housing supports from a research grant Dr. Yoon received from National Science Foundation (NSF).
On Thursday, June 22, the workshop series hosted 13 teachers from HTSD and Mercer County Technical Schools (MCTS) to participate in professional development (PD) activities. The teachers attended the PD workshop to learn about recent trends in artificial intelligence and sharpened their AI literacy.
Dr. Yoon organized the event in collaboration with the cooperating school districts, and a TCNJ Professor Karen Gordon. The workshop was the third offering of a four-year series (2021-2024), supported by the NSF Grant #1955365, a collaborative project with Rutgers University.